Kyiv Non Objective
Space and Belonging
The Kyiv Non Objective (KNO) was founded in 2017 by the Ukrainian artists Olena Dombrovska, Badri Gubianuri, Serhiy Popov and Tiberiy Silvasi. The formal non-profit organisation presented its first joint project in same year.
Their programmes were realized in collaboration with consultant artists Billy Gruner (AU), Suzan Shutan (USA), Richard van der Aa (FR) and TILMAN (DE/US/FR). The group promotes further dialogue between contemporary reductive and non-tangible artist networks internationally. KNO is primarily based on the concrete, constructivist and suprematist traditions, but also revisits them and works in an international context. Similar to the Open Structures Art Association (OSAS), it was timely to collaborate, but the war accelerated this process.
Ukraine is in many ways a close country, but postally it is further away than Japan, so some of the works are still in transit after the exhibition opens. The context of the works in the exhibition is the absence, the unoccupied space that defines the reality of Ukraine today. The works on display are never a substitute for those that are not present, but the not present can complete the works present, in this case.
Important were the KNO exhibitions that preceded this one, such as the Három Hét Galéria (Budapest) in March, Galerie Floss & Schulz in Cologne in April, and at the EST art foundation in Leiden in May.
KNO Space and Belonging would not have been possible without the generosity of Gelerie Diehl in lending paintings from the group's Berlin collection, the selfless contribution of Olena Dombrovska in bringing and transporting her fellow artists' works from Ukraine, and above all the organizational work of Serhiy Popov.
Exhibiting artists: Olena Dombrovska, Badri Gubianuri, Serhiy Popov, Tiberiy Szilvasi, Myroslav Vayda.
Opening by Diána Vonnák
23 June 2022 at 19:00 at the Vasarely Museum
On view from 27 May to 21 August 2022.
The exhibition is part of the international programme of the OSAS in Budapest.
We express our solidarity with the members of the KNO, Ukrainian artists and people.
Barna Benedek, curator of the exhibition, and members of the Open Structures Art Association